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Coeliac bone loss link uncovered - BBC NEWS | Health
"People with coeliac disease may be more susceptible to osteoporosis because their own immune system attacks their bone tissue, a study suggests.
Osteoporosis is a known risk of coeliac disease and has been explained by a failure to absorb calcium or vitamin D. "
Sixty million years of evolution says vitamin D may save your life from swine flu by Mike Adams the Health Ranger
"(NaturalNews) People still don't get it: Vitamin D is the "miracle nutrient" that activates your immune system to defend you against invading microorganisms -- including seasonal flu and swine flu. Two months ago, an important study was published by researchers at Oregon State University. This study reveals something startling: Vitamin D is so crucial to the functioning of your immune system that the ability of vitamin D to boost immune function and destroy invading microorganisms has been conserved in the genome for over 60 million years of evolution.
As this press release from Oregon State University (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea...) explains:
The fact that this vitamin-D mediated immune response has been retained through millions of years of evolutionary selection, and is still found in species ranging from squirrel monkeys to baboons and humans, suggests that it must be critical to their survival, researchers say.
"The existence and importance of this part of our immune response makes it clear that humans and other primates need to maintain sufficient levels of vitamin D," said Adrian Gombart, an associate professor of biochemistry and a principal investigator with the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University."
Fish Oil-Fed Mice Have Impaired Resistance to Influenza Infection -- Schwerbrock et al. 139 (8): 1588 -- Journal of Nutrition
Fish oil-fed mice have impaired resistance to influenza infection.
Schwerbrock NM, Karlsson EA, Shi Q, Sheridan PA, Beck MA.
J Nutr. 2009 Aug;139(8):1588-94. Epub 2009 Jun 23.
PMID: 19549756
doi:10.3945/jn.109.108027
These results suggest that the antiinflammatory properties of fish oil feeding can alter the immune response to influenza infection, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality.
Their immune cells, fighting your cancer
IMMUNE cells from “cancer-resistant” people are to be injected into those with cancer to help fight the disease. Zheng Cui at Wake Forest University of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and his colleagues have received permission from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to screen people for their ability to ward off cancer. Immune cells from the best cancer fighters will be given to cancer patients, after being matched for blood type. All of us have some ability to fight cancer, via immune cells called NK cells which can identify and kill tumour cells, although the extent of these cells’ influence is not known. But Cui has now discovered that a much larger population of immune cells called granulocytes can also kill cancer and that the effectiveness of these cells varies from person to person.
Cui took blood samples from more than 100 people and mixed their granulocytes with cervical cancer cells. While granulocytes from one individual killed around 97 per cent of cancer cells within 24 hours, those from another healthy individual only killed around 2 per cent of cancer cells. Average cancer-killing ability appeared to be lower in adults over the age of 50 and even lower in people with cancer. It also fell when people were stressed, and at certain times of the year. “Nobody seems to have any cancer-killing ability during the winter months from November to April,” says Cui, who presented preliminary results at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence meeting in Cambridge, UK, earlier this month.
Vitamin D and autoimmune rheumatic diseases -- Cutolo 48 (3): 210 -- Rheumatology
Vitamin D and autoimmune rheumatic diseases.
Cutolo M.
Rheumatology (Oxford). 2009 Mar;48(3):210-2. Epub 2008 Oct 17.
PMID: 18930963
doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken394
Vitamin D and Its Role in Cancer and Immunity: A Prescription for Sunlight -- Mullin and Dobs 22 (3): 305 -- Nutrition in Clinical Practice
Vitamin d and its role in cancer and immunity: a prescription for sunlight.
Mullin GE, Dobs A.
Nutr Clin Pract. 2007 Jun;22(3):305-22. Review.
PMID: 17507731
DOI: 10.1177/0115426507022003305
Whole Health Source: Cancer and the Immune System
They found some important trends. Granulocytes from people over 50 years old had a reduced ability to kill cancer cells, as did granulocytes from people with cancer. This raises the possibility that cancer is not simply the result of getting too old, but a very specific weakening of the immune system.
The most important finding, however, was that the granulocytes' kung-fu grip declined dramatically during the winter months. Here's Dr. Cui:
Nobody seems to have any cancer-killing ability during the
winter months from November to April.
Vitamin D treatment in multiple sclerosis - ScienceDirect - Journal of the Neurological Sciences
Vitamin D treatment in multiple sclerosis.
Myhr KM.
J Neurol Sci. 2009 Jun 22. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 19549608
doi:10.1016/j.jns.2009.05.002
Epidemiological evidence combined with clinical and laboratory analyses, and experimental animal models, suggest a possible influence of vitamin D on MS susceptibility as well as clinical disease activity.
Supplement with vitamin D may reduce the risk of developing MS. An intervention may also reduce the risk of conversion from a first clinical event suggestive of MS to clinical definite MS, as well as reduce the relapse rate among patients with relapsing remitting MS. More studies are, however, needed to determine optimal dose and serum level for vitamin D, as well as target populations and optimal timing for intervention.
Oral vitamin D may help prevent some skin infections
October 6th, 2008
A study led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that use of oral Vitamin D supplements bolsters production of a protective chemical normally found in the skin, and may help prevent skin infections that are a common result of atopic dermatitis, the most common form of eczema.
Evolution and function of vitamin D. [Recent Results Cancer Res. 2003] - PubMed Result
Evolution and function of vitamin D.
Holick MF.
Recent Results Cancer Res. 2003;164:3-28. Review.
PMID: 12899511
From vitamin D to hormone D: fundamentals of the vitamin D endocrine system essential for good health -- Norman 88 (2): 491S -- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
From vitamin D to hormone D: fundamentals of the vitamin D endocrine system essential for good health.
Norman AW.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Aug;88(2):491S-499S. Review.
PMID: 18689389
Vitamin D and the vitamin D receptor are critical for control of the innate immune response to colonic injury - BioMed Central | Full text
Conclusion
The data point to a critical role for the VDR and 1,25(OH)2D3 in control of innate immunity and the response of the colon to chemical injury.
Vitamin D and the vitamin D receptor are critical for control of the innate immune response to colonic injury.
Froicu M, Cantorna MT.
BMC Immunol. 2007 Mar 30;8:5.
PMID: 17397543
doi:10.1186/1471-2172-8-5
Exapation of an ancient Alu short interspersed element provides a highly conserved vitamin D-mediated innate immune response in humans and primates - BioMed Central | Full text
Conclusion
We demonstrated that the VDRE in the CAMP gene originated from the exaptation of an AluSx SINE in the lineage leading to humans, apes, OWMs and NWMs and remained under purifying selection for the last 55–60 million years. We present convincing evidence of an evolutionarily fixed, Alu-mediated divergence in steroid hormone nuclear receptor gene regulation between humans/primates and other mammals. Evolutionary selection to place the primate CAMP gene under regulation of the vitamin D pathway potentiates the innate immune response and may counter the anti-inflammatory properties of vitamin D.
Exaptation of an ancient Alu short interspersed element provides a highly conserved vitamin D-mediated innate immune response in humans and primates.
Gombart AF, Saito T, Koeffler HP.
BMC Genomics. 2009 Jul 16;10:321.
PMID: 19607716
doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-321
Key feature of immune system survived in humans, other primates for 60 million years
A new study has concluded that one key part of the immune system, the ability of vitamin D to regulate anti-bactericidal proteins, is so important that is has been conserved through almost 60 million years of evolution and is shared only by primates, including humans - but no other known animal species.
Antitumor Activity of Human Papillomavirus Type 16 E7-Specific T Cells against Virally Infected Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck -- Albers et al. 65 (23): 11146 -- Cancer Research
Antitumor activity of human papillomavirus type 16 E7-specific T cells against virally infected squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Albers A, Abe K, Hunt J, Wang J, Lopez-Albaitero A, Schaefer C, Gooding W, Whiteside TL, Ferrone S, DeLeo A, Ferris RL.
Cancer Res. 2005 Dec 1;65(23):11146-55.
PMID: 16322265
Old People May Be Immune to Swine Flu | Wired Science | Wired.com
Just having been alive for a while could protect you from getting the novel swine flu circling the planet.
In 1977, a type of H1N1 virus, commonly known as the “Russian flu,” spread across the world, infecting people under 25 at much higher rates than their elders, who had been exposed to similar viruses in the ’40s and ’50s. In the first documented American outbreak, 70 percent of the students fell ill at a high school in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while their teachers proved immune. As the Air Force Academy’s chief medical officer said in 1978, “It’s one of the advantages of being middle-aged.”
Now, Leonard Mermel, an infectious disease specialist at Rhode Island Hospital, suggests the current flu virus could be similar enough to that ’70s strain that older people could again find themselves immune to a new virus.
Lifestyle-induced metabolic inflexibility and accelerated ageing syndrome: insulin resistance, friend or foe? - Nutrition & Metabolism | Full text
Lifestyle-induced metabolic inflexibility and accelerated ageing syndrome: insulin resistance, friend or foe?
Nunn AV, Bell JD, Guy GW.
Nutr Metab (Lond). 2009 Apr 16;6:16.
PMID: 19371409
doi:10.1186/1743-7075-6-16
Tregs and allergic disease - Journal of Clinical Investigation
Tregs and allergic disease.
Robinson DS, Larché M, Durham SR.
J Clin Invest. 2004 Nov;114(10):1389-97. Review.
PMID: 15545986
doi:10.1172/JCI23595
Cell-mediated Adaptive Immune Defense of the Lungs -- Curtis 2 (5): 412 -- Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society
Cell-mediated adaptive immune defense of the lungs.
Curtis JL.
Proc Am Thorac Soc. 2005;2(5):412-6. Review.
PMID: 16322591
Novel Nonantibiotic Therapies for Pneumonia* — CHEST
Effective host defense against bacterial infection is dependent on the activation and recruitment of phagocytic cells. The initiation, maintenance, and resolution of this inflammatory response in the setting of bacterial pneumonia is dependent on the expression of cytokines. As the complexities of the host-pathogen interaction are further dissected and unraveled, immunologic manipulation of cytokine expression will likely become an important adjuvant therapy in the treatment of serious lung infections.
Novel nonantibiotic therapies for pneumonia: cytokines and host defense.
Nelson S.
Chest. 2001 Feb;119(2 Suppl):419S-425S. Review.
PMID: 11171779
DOI: 10.1378/chest.119.2_suppl.419S
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